Dec. 30 - A schizophrenic with a stolen gun briefly shut down a Denver television station Wednesday, firing a shot, demanding a homemade videotape be aired and holding a receptionist hostage.

No one was injured - but about 100 terrified employees hid or fled the station before the gunman was captured by police.

"I thought we were dead," said station staff member John Allen.

Jesse Clayton Miner, 30, entered the lobby of KUSA-Channel 9, at 500 Speer Blvd., shortly before 9 a.m. He demanded that the station air his videotaped views that Americans need to do more for the underprivileged and for the mentally ill, police said.

After he was told to come back another day, he allegedly pulled a .44-caliber Magnum revolver and fired a shot through the front window, frightening nearly a dozen people who were in the lobby.

"When I heard the bang, I turned and looked at him," said freelance photographer Jim Blecha. "He still had the gun in his hand." Miner then ordered everyone in the lobby to leave except for Blecha and the receptionist, police said.

"Take this tape. Take it inside. I want to see it on the monitor right away," Blecha said Miner told him. Otherwise, Miner warned, the receptionist would be harmed.

Blecha said Miner apparently thought he worked for the station because he had a camera. The photographer took the tape to a studio and then ran out.

Meanwhile, Miner ordered the receptionist to take him to the newsroom, but instead she led him to an empty office, then to another.

"I am incredibly amazed at how calm she was and how she used her head," said Detective Mike Staskin. "If he got back to the newsroom-studio area, this thing ... could have gotten a lot worse." The receptionist, a temporary worker, managed to flee from the gunman before he was captured.

Miner's father, Don Miner of Pagosa Springs, said his son has suffered from schizophrenia for several years and was on medication.

"He hears voices in his mind," Don Miner said.

Miner once shot himself in the stomach, his father said.

"He said there were guys after him that meant business and he shot himself because he didn't want to die," Don Miner recalled.

Miner said his son didn't begin suffering from mental illness until after graduating from college. He got a degree in foreign languages from the University of ColoradoBoulder and attended Fort Lewis College in Durango briefly for an accounting degree, his father said.

He dropped out of Fort Lewis after one semester and went to Portland, Ore. Shortly after that, he began having mental problems and was hospitalized twice, his father said.

More than 100 officers answered the 8:52 a.m. call that a gunman was in the station.

The first to arrive was off-duty officer Daniel Wiley, who was driving by the station in his personal car on his way to work when the call was aired.

"I saw people barreling out of there," said Wiley, who drove up to the front door and entered the building.

Finding no one in the lobby, Wiley began checking rooms. He was joined by Sgt. Pete Diaz. When the officers spotted the gunman, they ordered him to drop his weapon. Miner was taken into custody without a struggle.

"He continued to ramble about the millennium. He wanted people to hear his story ... something about God," Wiley said.

Most station workers had fled the building, but police found 25 to 30 people hiding in a storage closet.

"They were real scared," Wiley said. "When they saw police officers, they were pretty relieved." Miner, who lives in Hanna, Wyo., with his mother, allegedly stole the weapon from a friend, took his mother's car and drove to Denver, Staskin said.

He is believed to have shoplifted the ammunition earlier Wednesday from a nearby Kmart store on South Broadway, Staskin said. Miner told police he had been preparing to visit a TV station for two months.

He had a torn page from the Denver telephone directory listing TV stations. Channel 9 was the only one that listed its address.

Among the items searched by police was a duffel bag Miner was carrying when he entered the lobby. They found only papers and personal belongings, said Sgt. Vince Gavito.

Officers also searched Miner's vehicle, parked in a visitor spot.

Miner faces first-degree kidnapping and felony menacing charges. Police are asking for a $1 million bond.

Roger Ogden, the station's general manager, credits the calm, quick response of employees and police for avoiding death or injury.

"We had a number of people make split-second decisions, and they made the right decision in every case," Ogden said.

Security at the station will be evaluated, he said.

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